iPad News – UPDATED

For the last few months most of the news about the Apple iPad has been coming out of the US but in the last few weeks, with it’s rumoured official release here in July/August looming closer and it’s late May official release in Australia just past, stories are starting to percolate closer to home.

In this case it’s Redoubt North School in Auckland. In this short article from interface magazine their Deputy Principal, Phil Toomer discusses their integration of the iPad into classroom activities.

This way of using the iPad, as an in-class device rather than a tool the student uses at home is starting to look like a trend. If you look at this post from May, it’s also how at least one University in Australia is using them.

Redoubt North’s use is especially interesting, not just because it’s a Kiwi example, but because it’s a primary school. Talk about raising expectations about interactive education at an early stage.

UPDATE: Another article has just come to me via Twitter. Again, this is from the US, but it points the way forward. You can read it here.